Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI (16 April 1927-), born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 19 April 2005 to 28 February 2013, succeeding Pope John Paul II and preceding Pope Francis. A conservative, he defended traditional Catholic doctrine and values, but he performed the unusual act of resigning from the Papacy due to his advanced age, the first Pope to voluntarily resign since Pope Celestine V in 1294.

Biography
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was born in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany in 1927, and he was conscripted into the Hitler Youth in 1941 (despite his family's bitter opposition to Nazism) and into the German anti-aircraft corps in 1943. He was held in a POW camp after World War II's end in 1945, and he entered seminary that same year and became an ordained Catholic priest in 1951. He became a highly regarded university theologian during the 1950s and became a full professor in 1958, serving as an academic and professor of theology at several German universities. Originally a liberal theologian, Ratzinger adopted conservative views after 1968 and defended traditional doctrine and values.

In 1977, Pope Paul VI appointed Ratzinger Archbishop of Munich and Freising and a Cardinal despite Ratzinger's lack of pastoral experience, and he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1981. He became one of Pope John Paul II's closest confidants, setting church priorities and directions during a conservative era for the Catholic Church. From 2002 to 2005, he served as Dean of the College of Cardinals.

In 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II, Ratzinger was elected Pope as "Benedict XVI". During his papacy, he advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter increased secularism in the West, and he viewed relativism's denial of objective truths (especially moral truths) as the central problem of the 21st century. He elevated the Tridentine Mass to a more prominent position, reintroduced traditional papal garments, stressed "Friendship with Jesus Christ", condoned historical revisionism, supported the restoration of the Tridentine Mass prayer that "Jews may be delivered from their darkness" (referring to their continued practice of Judaism instead of Christianity), said that Muhammad and Islam brought only evil and inhumane things to the world, believed that Native Americans had been silently longing to be converted to Christianity by colonizers, and obstructed sex abuse inquiries. A highly controversial Pope, he resigned in 2013 due to his old age, and he was succeeded by the liberal Pope Francis.